but i guess the debate about the trade isn't whether it's "staal > sutter" or "staal >>>> sutter". it's, do you want to make your roster worse in the immediate, but accumulate long term assets along the way? or do you want to keep your roster as strong as possible with a "win now" mentality and then lose staal for nothing at the end of the year? i lean towards the latter.

Staal's defense was at times suspect last season (maybe because we needed his offense), so Sutter might well be an upgrade in that regard. And as long as Sid and Geno are healthy we'll always have plenty of offense. I'm a big fan of Jordan, but I hesitate to say that we are a "worse" team than before. Different maybe, and the 1st round loss was proof that we need to be different.

shmenguin wrote:but i guess the debate about the trade isn't whether it's "staal > sutter" or "staal >>>> sutter". it's, do you want to make your roster worse in the immediate, but accumulate long term assets along the way? or do you want to keep your roster as strong as possible with a "win now" mentality and then lose staal for nothing at the end of the year? i lean towards the latter.

Personally I don't think anyone is really debating that either.mMyself and others on the topic seem to agree. The issue is that some disagree with the over evaluation with Sutter and the effects of our depth chart.

Email Tweet 4m Henrik Lundqvist ‏@HLundqvist30 If the plan is to have meetings between players and owners to solve this mess, maybe it's time to..Henrik Lundqvist ‏@HLundqvist30 ..allow teams that actually are carrying the league finacially to get involved. So far I have not seen any invitations to the meeting room..

Email Tweet 4m Henrik Lundqvist ‏@HLundqvist30 If the plan is to have meetings between players and owners to solve this mess, maybe it's time to..Henrik Lundqvist ‏@HLundqvist30 ..allow teams that actually are carrying the league finacially to get involved. So far I have not seen any invitations to the meeting room..

Loose translation: i am an idiot, show me the money. End the lockout so i can get paid.

My swedish is a little rusty, so the translation might not be spot on.

Gaucho wrote:Staal's defense was at times suspect last season (maybe because we needed his offense), so Sutter might well be an upgrade in that regard. And as long as Sid and Geno are healthy we'll always have plenty of offense. I'm a big fan of Jordan, but I hesitate to say that we are a "worse" team than before. Different maybe, and the 1st round loss was proof that we need to be different.

I'd argue that his body of work in the defensive zone last season was pretty mediocre.

Gaucho wrote:Not sure what he means. Is he telling the Jets to shut up, too?

He's talking about how the lockout is being driven by a small group of teams because Bettman only needs the approval of 8 teams to act. Many of the moderate and profitable teams have either been excluded from or not attended the meetings.

They aren't being excluded, they just realize that their opinion isn't going to be heard because the 8 poorest teams have enough say to derail things. The profitable teams would have signed the players last proposal in a second. People foolishly like to talk about the teams not "losing money" with the lockout, but i'm not sure how they can actually believe that. They would undoubtedly be making(or losing less) money with a season going. Just like the players though, they're standing pat on principle, because giving up ground now sets precedent for giving up more ground in future negotiations. The players are stopping the trend that could have been started by the last CBA and the owners are preventing themselves from getting into an agreement in which they give up too much.

Unfortunately, i don't think Mario has much respect in the NHL outside of Pittsburgh. People respect his accomplishments on the ice but remember what happened when he came out against what the Islanders did? Low lives like Garth Snow openly mocked him in public. I can't remember the exact quote and I'm paraphrasing here but i remember someone in the NHL saying, "If Mario wants to change the game so much, how about he shows up to ANY of our meetings."

I don't think Mario should step into this unless he brings Burkle with him. Otherwise, this could be extremely ugly.